 Production
Values
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- Tartarus
Press hardback books are designed and manufactured with
an eye on the elegant books of late Victorian and
Edwardian times. Their proportions and textual layout
follow the classic designs of this period, incorporating
features such as wide outer and lower margins. Although
we use the latest technology to typeset our books, we use
traditional fonts and harmonious character and
line-spacing.
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- The
printing and binding of our books is now undertaken by
Biddles, located in Norfolk. They use traditional
lithographic printing , and the paper we currently
specify is an acid free 130gsm cream cartridge. This is a
very heavy, specialist paper, allowing little
show-through of the printing from the other side of the
page, and is beautiful to handle and read from. It is the
nearest we can afford to the vellum that Leonard Smithers
used on his special editions of the 1890s! Being
acid-free means that it will not degrade over
time.
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- Our
books are made up from traditional sewn sections, a
method that has stood the test of time and offers the
maximum strength and durability. It allows you to open
the book fully without damaging the spine. Head and
tailbands finish off the spine neatly, and the silk
ribbon is a practical way of marking your place in the
book.
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- Our dust
jackets are printed colour on 135gsm paper, and, with
their simple, elegant designs, are similar to the
earliest dust wrappers. Although they are more prone to
damage than most commercial book jackets, we have found
that laminated jackets look too shiny. (Please contact us
if you have had a major accident with one of our dust
jackets: we will often be able to supply you with a
replacement!)
-
- Although
we have a "house style", our books do vary considerably
in size from the small 'prayer book' formats of
The White Hands and Dear Dead
Women through to the very large format
Beresford Egan. Internally our books vary
depending on the nature of the text, including
illustrations where appropriate, as in The Purple
Cloud and The Golem. The titles that
exhibit serious differences to the above specifications,
however, are our Guide to First Edition
Prices and Wormwood, our journal,
which are both produced as trade paperbacks.
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- Five titles by
Arthur Machen in print from the Tartarus Press (from top
left): The Secret of the
Sangraal & Other Writings, Dreads and
Drolls,
Ritual and Other
Stories,
The Hill of
Dreams, and
Tales of Horror and the
Supernatural.
Page
updated 5th September 2009
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